COLOMBO -- Delays in talks to end nearly two decades of war in Sri Lanka and more strident noises from the rebel Tamil Tigers do not mean the island's best chance to return to normal is slipping away, analysts said on Sunday.

They say their optimism, although muted compared to several months ago, is justified because a cease-fire that has stopped the killing is still in place and the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are still working toward the talks.

Snags over implementing clauses in the truce agreement, signed in February, have pushed back the direct talks to late July or even August from what was once forecast as a May start.

But the cease-fire has kept the guns silent and government officials are traveling to rebel-held areas to try to resolve issues ahead of the direct talks. One of Asia's longest and deadliest wars, Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict has left more than 64,000 dead, made refugees out of hundreds of thousands and squeezed the economy of one of the world's most beautiful islands.

"It is important to put this in perspective...the hiccups and stumbles were inevitable," said Rohan Edirisinghe, a constitutional analyst at the University of Colombo.

He said that, even though the two sides were arguing over clauses in the cease-fire agreement, they were still actively trying to find common ground on them.

"Bernard Gunatilake was able to go into Wanni to speak with Thamilselvan," he said.

Gunatilake is the government's top official for the peace process, and he flew into the rebel-controlled north recently for talks with LTTE political wing leader S.P.

Thamilselvan.

The snags include the rebels saying the peace process was "in the doldrums" because the Sri Lankan military had not acted quickly enough to vacate public buildings as set out in the cease-fire agreement.

"Sri Lanka has reneged on its pledge to restore normalcy in the Tamil areas by demilitarizing the region," said the ***Tamil Guardian*** newspaper, a mouthpiece of the Tigers.

Worries that the peace process will go off the rails are always close to the surface in Sri Lanka after four previous peace bids all ended in renewed bloodshed.

"It is the question on whether the Tigers really believe in a political solution or are just buying time," Edirisinghe said of the LTTE, fighting since 1983 for an independent Tamil state in the island's north and east.

But hopes have jumped this year amid quick moves by the government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe -- elected last December -- to sign the Norwegian-brokered cease-fire and begin "talks about talks".

To some the slowing of the peace process in recent weeks is not a bad sign because there were worries that in the euphoria things were being rushed.

"Sometimes a slow peace process is a good thing," said Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu of the Center for Policy Alternatives, a Colombo think-tank.

He said time was needed to think through a proper agenda so that once the talks do get going they will be more successful.

The agenda for the talks to be held in Thailand has also been a sticking point, with the rebels wanting to discuss an interim administration for the north and east and the government wanting to talk about that as part of the overall ethnic problem.

Changes in the world since September 11 have also focused more light on civil disputes such as Sri Lanka's.

"There is more international pressure now on both sides not to go back to fighting," said one Asian diplomat.

The United States and Britain have both praised the truce and stepped up pressure on the LTTE to negotiate an end to the conflict, Reuters said.